20040531

"We're in the middle of nowhere - like 45 minutes away from, like, civilization and it's, like, all real. It's, like, really cold and last night we were shooting at this sugar mill and it really smelled bad. And I didn't wear shoes, like, I don't know. We're in the middle of nowhere and there's bugs everywhere. Everything's real - I'm actually running through a forest with bare feet - it hurts. I've done my own stunts, like falling. I hurt my knee - it was bleeding. But it looks good, so it's worth it."
-- Paris Hilton, as told to Entertainment Tonight.

20040530

"I figured this would be the last time to wear a uniform."
-- William Ryan, 80, a retired colonel, who fought in France and Germany with the Army's 3rd Infantry, at the newly opened WWII Memorial in Washington DC, yesterday. As told to reporter Aly Sujo in the New York Post.

20040529

"It's rare to find even one person who completely understands you in life, and it's because you don't allow people to know you - how can you get help if you don't ask for it?"
-- Elaine Stritch, in an interview with Elisabeth Vincentelli, in Time Out New York. Photo from ElaineStritch.com.

20040528

“Our feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, loss of hope and so forth are in fact related to all phenomena. If we do not adopt the right outlook, it is possible that anything and everything could cause us frustration. Yet phenomena are part of reality and we are subject to the laws of existence. So this leaves us only one option: to change our own attitude. By bringing about a change in our outlook towards things and events, all phenomena can become friends or sources of happiness, instead of becoming enemies or sources of frustration”.
-- Dalai Lama, The Dalai Lama’s Book Of Wisdom

20040527

All over the AP wires last night were reports that Al-Qaida is in the country, planning to 'hit us hard' sometime this summer.

I'm sure all of us who read the report had the same reaction of revulsion and fear. On a purely human level, it's terrifying to even begin to contemplate what that might mean.

But I'm reminded of the first sentence in A Course in Miracles, that 'There is no order of difficulty in miracles.' The Course teaches that the effects of love are maximal, and natural in the presence of love. If and when we find our spiritual center, a miracle will automatically occur.

Finding our spiritual center as a nation means we atone for our own errors and apologize for our own transgressions - against the Native Americans, the Vietnamese, etc. It means we ask God to forgive us as a nation for having so much, and giving so comparatively little away to those who have less. It means we ask God to forgive us for our sins, come into our hearts and turn us into the nation He would have us be.

Thought is the level of cause, while the world is the level of effects. Our greatest power to change the world is our power to think about it differently. Our greatest hope lies not in our military might, but in our power to change our consciousness.

This is the eleventh hour, that is true, but it is not yet midnight. As enough of us humble ourselves and ask God's forgiveness, expressing our willingness to both forgive and serve at a profound new level, then we will have our miracle. And before it is too late.

Dear God,
Please save America
In this, our hour of danger.
Forgive us for
our selfish,
our greed,
our transgressions against others,
our lack of love.
Return our nation
To the thoughts of righteousness,
That we might live Your light once more.
Deliver us
From danger
Now and forever
Please make us new
and keep us safe.
Thank you, God.
Amen"

20040524

20040523

"New York City has already been targeted by terrorists six times since 1993. Yet inexplicably, today New York state ranks 49th among the 50 states in per capita homeland security funding... This is pork-barrel politics at its worse. It's the kind of shortsighted 'me-first' nonsense that gives Washington a bad name... It also, unfortunately, has the effect of aiding and abetting those who hate us and plot against us."
-- Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York, to the 911 Commission last week, as quoted in the New York Post.

20040522

"With America's image torn internationally and literally ripped apart in the Arab world, we've now got to decide where we go from here. To do that, however, we have to understand what got us here in the first place. Where and why did the tear begin?

I believe the first small tear occurred early in the Bush administration, with the abandonment of the Kyoto negotiations on climate change and U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Those events announced the beginning of a new, unilateralist foreign policy -- one long advocated by conservatives who distrusted international cooperation and agreements as limitations on America's pursuit of its own interests. The American colossus, the greatest power on Earth, was throwing its weight around, and it made people in other countries nervous.

Then came Sept. 11, and the one curious thing was that the events of that horrific day seemed instantly to knit up the tear. In cities around the world, people gathered in throngs to express not just sympathy but a genuine affection for America and Americans. I was in Italy at the time, and perfect strangers, learning that I was an American, came up and shook my hand with tears in their eyes. NATO voted, for the first time in its history, to invoke Article V of its charter calling for collective defense of any member attacked. Ironically, Sept. 11 was a high point of international regard for this country. When we attacked al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, we insisted on fighting that war by ourselves. But NATO members, including Germany and France, offered both money and troops to help with the reconstruction.

But some other things were happening, as well. President Bush soon would announce America's right and intention to launch "pre-emptive" war against "imminent" threats to the United States. Sept. 11 had "changed the world," and the administration decided that the rules of warfare had to be changed -- unilaterally.

The secretary of defense claimed that the Geneva Convention did not apply to the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

We began writing our own rules for the treatment of terrorist suspects and prisoners of war -- rules that included the now-infamous elements of "stress and duress."

We began "rendering" suspects to other countries so they could be tortured.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice still forbade the use of torture by American forces. But practices that, at the very least, bordered on torture were authorized. In Iraq, chronic troop shortages meant that soldiers untrained for the role were assigned as prison guards. The new rules created a disaster just waiting to happen.

It seems to me that, in the appalling abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and the international outrage it has caused, we are reaping what we have so carelessly sown.

In this and so many other ways, our unilateralism and the arrogance that accompanies it have cost us dearly.

So where do we go from here? Well, we might already have made a small start. In the backwash of this scandal, the new rules have been at least partly rescinded in Iraq, and the Geneva Convention seems to have a new respectability in Washington.

But more importantly, we need to go back to a foreign policy that genuinely embraces international cooperation. Right now, we are eating humble pie, welcoming U.N. participation in Iraq after having scornfully denied the United Nations any meaningful role before we bogged down going it alone.

It still is immediately important for this nation that its invasion of Iraq should result in a free and functioning Iraqi democracy. It also is clear now that we cannot accomplish that by ourselves.

We have, so to speak, run (or fallen) to the end of our unilateral rope.

Beyond Iraq, we need to restore America's image as a preserver and defender of the peace and prove to the world that the change is more than cosmetic.

But here one has to ask, as others have, whether we can convince the world of our sincerity without regime change here at home."

20040520

"Ultimately the (vampire) shows were cult shows; we didn't make Friends, so nobody is going to use us as a financial model. And the financial models are what changed television. If I had created reality television I would have had a much greater influence, but then I would have had to KILL MYSELF."
-- Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in the Toronto Star.

20040519

"In the nineties, as a result of a major push by feminists and the Clinton administration, women were admitted to combat zones. Remember that debate? Opponents said women would cower and shrink - that they couldn't engage as equals with men in war's cruelty and degradations. If only."
-- Naomi Wolf, New York Magazine

20040518

"So many people have won Emmys, so many people have won multiple Emmys that I think it's a degraded award. You mustn't take any award so seriously. Awards are only a publicity gimmick. That's all they are. Awards sell tickets, and they're a clever publicity stunt. But anyone who believes them, believes in Santa Claus."
-- Tony Randall, 1920-2004, in an interview with Theresa Hyde, March 2000.

20040516

"Oblivious of the consequences, the impetuous black sheep of a ruling family starts a war triggered by a personal grudge... The father, a respected veteran of his own wars, suppresses his unease and graciously supports his son, even though it will end up destroying his legacy and the world order he envisioned... The ferocious battle in the far-off sands spirals out of control, with many brave soldiers killed, with symbols of divinity damaged, with graphic scenes showing physical abuse of the conquered, and with devastatingly surreptitious guerrilla tactics."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

20040515

"We have a duty to ensure that our troops are sent into battle only as a last resort... This nation should never go to war because it wants to, but only because it has to."
-- Senator John Kerry, The Melbourne Herald Sun

20040514

"...This manipulative attempt to establish a moral equivalence between the gruesome execution of Mr. Berg and the torture of Iraqi prisoners is now being mimicked by some hard-core supporters of the American war in Iraq. They are cynically trying to use the images of Mr. Berg to wipe away the images of Abu Ghraib, turning the abhorrence for the murderers into an excuse for demonizing Arabs and Muslims, or for sanctioning their torture."
-- Editorial, The New York Times

20040511

“The are only two ways to handle tense situations: you can change them, or you can change the way you look at them. There is enlightenment to be had in changing the way you look at things".
-- Paul Wilson, The Little Book Of Calm

20040508

20040507

"The world is waiting now for a sign that President Bush understands the seriousness of what has happened. It needs to be more than his repeated statements that he is sorry the rest of the world does not "understand the true nature and heart of America." Mr. Bush should start showing the state of his own heart by demanding the resignation of his secretary of defense."
-- Editorial, The New York Times

20040502

20040501

"One year ago, on the deck of the USS Lincoln, under a banner reading 'Mission Accomplished,' President Bush told America that 'major combat operations in Iraq have ended.'... In April 2004, more U.S. soldiers died in Iraq than during the entire period that Bush considered 'major combat.'... We now know that President Bush misled the American people in the run up to war. We know that he had no plan for post-war Iraq. We know that, thanks to the arrogance and incompetence of this administration, our mission is not accomplished."
-- Democratic National Committee

"And I Quote" Blog

After 2700+ posts, I pretty much retired this blog. I continue to throw on a new quote from time to time... Feel free to browse the Archives on here or to use the nifty Search box. You may also join me on Postcards from Hell's Kitchenblog and/or on myToddHellsKitchTwitter profile.